It would be worth paying “over the odds” to get a £1.3bn tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay built, Labour has said. Shadow Wales Office Minister Chris Ruane criticised the chancellor’s failure to give the go-ahead to the £1.3bn project in Wednesday’s Budget. A government commissioned independent review backed the scheme, which needs a subsidy for the electricity produced. Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns said he wanted the project to happen but “on the basis it is value for money”. Mr Ruane, MP for Vale of Clwyd, said it was a “key project for Wales”. He told BBC Wales: “There are going to be six tidal lagoons cross the United Kingdom. This was the first experimental one, small scale off Swansea, and if it had been a success then the others would get built. “Four of those six would be in Wales, including in my own constituency.” Asked if Labour would agree to the scheme regardless of cost, Mr Ruane told BBC Wales: “When you look at how much public funding has gone into early energy technologies like nuclear, like wind, like solar – we may have to pay over the odds, but it’s a price worth paying. “These structures will be built for 125 years and we’ll be able to time our electricity to the minute for 125 years. The Hendry Review reported in January, the government has sat on it and done nothing for 11 months. They had an opportunity to do something today and they didn’t.”
BBC 23rd Nov 2017 read more »
